Basque ethnography at a glance
Lean-to shed in the neighbourhood of Aldeacueva. Carranza (Bizkaia), 2009. Miguel Sabino Díaz.
An auxiliary construction, usually attached to the house though sometimes detached from it, known as rocha used to be quite common, as senior locals in the Valley of Carranza (Bizkaia) recall.
The earliest record of that type of building appears in writing, in a letter sent by Diego de Ahedo, native of Carranza and Archbishop of Palermo, from Sicily to his nephew Pedro Ochoa de Ahedo, resident in the Valley. The letter is dated 15 January 1588, and in it mention is made of an annex where threshed grain was store: “it is now preferable and most convenient to store it in the outhouse where cider used to be made and kept”. (more…)
Frame of the 2007 Final Cut.
This is not Los Angeles, but it is November 2019, the month and the year Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (US, 1982) takes place. The film and its soundtrack, by Vangelis, made a strong first impression on me. Several versions have been released over the years, including the director’s 2007 Final Cut. Just another science fiction movie for some, it truly is more than a masterpiece for me. (more…)
The threat of the Asian hornet, and more notably, the environmental impact of pesticides have surely raised public consciousness of the dangers of bee mortality and the deadly consequences of their extinction to the planet.
In connection with bees and beekeeping, let us review a former custom, vanished sometime between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, according to which house bees were to be told of the death of their keeper. We are of course talking about a time when most farmsteads kept honeybees.
Telling the bees. Photograph taken from Gure Herria [Our People]. Euskal Biblioteka. Labayru Fundazioa.
Chestnut enclosure of Lastrabe. Orozko (Bizkaia). Courtesy of Supelaur Kultur Elkartea.
The smell of roasted chestnuts shall soon fill the air as countless vendors take to the streets of villages, cities and towns. A cone of a dozen chestnuts for as much as three euros!
Now a favourite treat for cold, dark autumn and winter afternoons, chestnuts were a staple of the traditional Basque diet. And their consumption still prevailed among other nuts and dried fruits until half a century ago. (more…)
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